Bryan A. Garner

So inflected. The past participle “stridden” (attested in the Oxford English Dictionary from 1576 to 1970), as well as its variant form “strode” (attested from 1817 to 1963), rarely appears today. Another past-participial form, *”strid,” was current before 1800, but it is now obsolete. The form “strode” can be either the simple past or the …

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Though *”stricken” often appears as a past participle, grammatical authorities have long considered it inferior to “struck.” It’s archaic except when used as an adjective {a stricken community}. The past-participial use is ill-advised — e.g.: “A noncompete agreement that bans a person from ever setting up a competing company in the same geographical location will …

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Language-Change Index. The third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage reflects several new practices. Invariably inferior forms, for example, are now marked with asterisks preceding the term or phrase, a marking common in linguistics. The most interesting new feature is the Language-Change Index. Its purpose is to measure how widely accepted various linguistic innovations have …

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stratum. The plural is “strata” — which should not be used as a singular but sometimes is. E.g.: “By contrast with the atmosphere of, say, Sinclair Lewis’s ‘Main Street,’ in which an afternoon call or the purchase of a shirtwaist might occasion endless talk among every strata [read ‘stratum’] of a community, minding our own …

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The verb is inflected “strew” / “strewed” / “strewn.” “Strewed” is sometimes misused as a past-participial form — e.g.: o “Cars were strewed [read ‘strewn’] haphazardly in parking lots.” David Montgomery, “Flood Waters Leave Widespread Ruin in Their Wake,” Wash. Post, 23 Jan. 1996, at A1. o “It’s been 13 years since her [Georgia O’Keeffe’s] …

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“Straitlaced” (= rigidly narrow in moral matters; prudish) referred originally, in the 16th century, to a tightly laced corset — “strait” meaning “narrow” or “closely fitting.” Over time, writers have forgotten the etymology (or they never learned it in the first place) and have confused “strait” with “straight.” Hence the erroneous form *”straightlaced” — e.g.: …

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straitjacket. The "strait" in this word means "close-fitting." *"Straightjacket" is a common but undesirable variant for "straitjacket" — e.g.: "Teachers of the subject assigned editorials by rhetorical types until it was realized that such straightjacketing [read ‘straitjacketing’] of students was destructive of talent, not a developer of it." Curtis D. MacDougall, Principles of Editorial Writing …

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straighten; straiten. These two verbs have different meanings. "Straighten" = to make or become straight. "Straiten" = (1) to make narrow, confine; or (2) to put into distress, esp. financial hardship. Because "straiten" is the rarer word, it is sometimes wrongly displaced by "straighten" — e.g.: o "Brookes may pride itself on a different sort …

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Miscellaneous Entries. stoic, adj.; stoical. Neither form is rare enough to be called a needless variant. But H.W. Fowler rightly observed that “stoical” appears more often as a predicate adjective {his behavior was stoical}, while “stoic” is better used attributively {stoic indifference} (Modern English Usage 1st ed. at 565). Unless specifically referring to the ancient …

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stomping ground; stamping ground. The first outnumbers the second by a 3-to-1 ratio in modern print sources. When the first edition of this book appeared in 1998, only one major American dictionary listed "stomping ground." Now almost all dictionaries have it, and about half give it priority over "stamping ground." It's perfectly idiomatic to say …

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stink / stank / stunk. So inflected. *Stinked is a dialectal past tense and past participle. "Stunk" often appears erroneously as a simple-past form, especially in figurative uses — e.g.: o "When I coached, the calls stunk [read 'stank'] then and the calls stink now." Howard Manly, "Patriots, Ch. 4 Winners," Boston Globe, 8 Dec. …

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stimulus. The plural is "stimuli." This word has not traditionally made a native-English plural, but a few writers have nevertheless experimented with *"stimuluses" — e.g.: o "The octopus is meant not to symbolize industry or productivity, but as an example of the kind of visual stimuluses [read 'stimuli'] that America is producing." Robert W. Duffy, …

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stigma. Part A: Plural. “Stigma” (/STiG-muh/) can be pluralized in two ways: “stigmas” and “stigmata” (/stig-MAH-tuh/). The English plural (“-mas”) is preferable in most contexts. But “stigmata” carries the specialized sense “bodily marks resembling the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ.” In this sense the word is sometimes pronounced /STiG-muh-tuh/, after the Greek and Latin. Part …

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Miscellaneous Entries. stick with; stick to. Both phrases are acceptable in figurative senses {stick with it!} {stick to it!}. “Stick with” predominates in American English, “stick to” in British English. stiletto. The plural is “stilettos.” still life. Although the usual plural of “life” is “lives,” the phrase “still life” makes the plural “still lifes.” stock; …

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stick / stuck / stuck. So inflected. The exception occurs in hockey and other sports, in which “sticked” (= [1] hit with a stick, or [2] having used a stick) is ubiquitous — e.g.: o “No one has pogo-sticked farther.” John Walters, “The Question Is Why?” Sports Illustrated, 2 Nov. 1998, at 16. o “Lightning …

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